Archerr

My summer comes to an end today. Tomorrow I officially go back to work. The summer has gone really fast. It seems like it goes faster each year. The boyfriend and I did a lot of fun things this summer and did our best to enjoy the time we had.

Last night we tried to have one more summer outing but the weather didn't cooperate very well. We went to Tarara Winery for one of their Sounds of the Summer Concerts. The band was called Moossa. We weren't sure if we would like it or not but decided to pack a picnic dinner and go. On the way it began to rain. It was raining when we got there so we sat in the car waiting for it to let up. It eventually did. The band started, the picnic was set out, and the wine began flowing. After awhile it started raining again. We moved our table under some trees but were still getting wet. Once we were able to concentrate on the music, we realized we really didn't care for it. They had a hard time focusing on one genre or time period. After a bottle of wine, and finishing our dinner, we decided to bag the evening and come home. It wasn't so bad. At least neither one of us was enjoying it more than the other so we didn't miss anything.

So now it's back to work...which means going to bed early and getting up early and having lots of work to do in the evenings.

How long before the Christmas break?

The boyfriend headed back to work today. I don't officially start back until next week but decided to go back to work today. I knew I'd have a lot to do before the meetings start next week.

Over the summer everything in my classroom was moved out so they could remove the carpet and replace it with tile. The tile looks great but I basically had to start from scratch and put everything back in the right place. Today I was able to move all the furniture back in place and begin to unpack the boxes of books I had. Those few things took me several hours today. I plan to go back each day this week to get most of my classroom set up before next week. There is so much to do.

I'm really tired from doing all the moving today. I fear my back will be in pain tomorrow morning.

The boyfriend plays tennis often. I, on the other hand, have only begun to learn the game. We have recently played a few times and I'm learning. I have 4 courts at my condo so it doesn't cost anything to play and the courts are usually empty. We played tennis again today with our friend, Michael. Actually, he and the boyfriend played most of the time. When Michael got tired I filled in. I think I'm learning pretty quickly. I think I do a pretty good job of returning the ball when the boyfriend slams it my way. It will be a long time until I'm up to his level but I'm having a good time learning. Plus, it's exercise! Here's the boyfriend at the end of the session being silly.

Last night the boyfriend and I went to Wolf Trap for our seventh concert of the summer. We went to see Shawn Colvin. On the bill with Shawn Colvin was John Hiatt. We thought he would be opening for Shawn Colvin but actually they were billed equally on the ticket. Shawn Colvin started the show and played for about 45 minutes and then John Hiatt joined her on stage for a few songs and then she was done. After a good 20 minute break, John Hiatt came on stage and started his set. It went on for about another hour.

I think we both agreed this was our least favorite concert of the summer. Shawn Colvin was great but very subdued and calm. John Hiatt was fine too but he was more upbeat. Both were great muscians but I didn't find the music very appealing. The boyfriend liked it better than I did.

The crowd was pretty different too. We expected there to be more lesbians or family members there but we only saw one of the gay couple. I'm sure there were more but we didn't see them. I think the crowd is what kept me from getting into the music. There was an obnoxious guy behind us who was really loud and wouldn't shut up during the whole concert. The boyfriend was better at filtering him out. There was a kid in front of us who was a bit more active than I care for and there was a bunch of chatty girls to our right that got on my nerves too. Oh well.

We do have one more concert coming up after labor day. We'll be going back to Wolf Trap to see Brian Colbertson. We know we'll enjoy that one. We love his music already.

Last night my mom came over for dinner to celebrate her 76th birthday. Yesterday was her birthday. We had a very nice dinner (thanks to the boyfriend) and she enjoyed her gift. Here are a few pictures. Notice my mother is blowing out a big non-birthday candle. I didn't have any birthday candles for her to blow out so she blew out the one that was on the table.

I haven't gotten a traffic ticket since 1985. That run of luck ended this morning. I was driving out to Wolf Trap to pick up tickets for two more concerts the boyfriend and I decided to go to. On the way home, I decided to take the toll road and pay the 50 cents instead of winding through the neighborhood streets at 25 miles per hour. Everything was going fine until I paid my toll. Just as I was pulling away from the booth I heard a knock on my window. I was a bit surprised. I rolled down the window and saw a state trooper at my window.

Unfortunately I had the earphones to my iPod in my ears. The first thing he asked was if I had earphones in my ears. I said yes. Mistake number one. He asked me to pull over to the left side of the road. I did. He then came to the window and informed me that it was illegal to have earphones in your ears while driving. He then told me that my state inspection had expired. I was shocked by this but sure enough, I looked over and saw it was two months past due. Damn!

He then told me he was going to write me TWO citations. One for the earphones and one for the expired inspection. I was so mad at myself at this point. How could I have not noticed my inspection was due two months ago? What was I thinking? I'm usually really on top of things like that. So he came back to the car with the two tickets. I signed them and he informed me that one could be paid through the mail but for the other one I have to go to court. He said I might be able to pay for it through the mail but that he rarely gives out a ticket for driving with earphones that he's not sure. He then told me to drive safely and I left.

I drove right to the nearest gas station and got my state inspection. When I got home I checked online about paying by mail because I did not want to go to court for wearing earphones while driving. As it turns out I CAN pay that one through the mail as well.

So what I thought was going to be a simple 50 cents to save some time ended up costing me $128 and more than an hour of my time.

Is this Friday the 13th?

Last night the boyfriend and I had a dinner party at his place. You know he's a great cook. He had a 4 course meal. He started with shrimp, then had a tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese salad, and then moved on to shrimp crab cakes with corn relish. For desert he made a delicious lemon cheesecake. Each course had a different Virginia wine. It was all very good!

We had some wine friends and some pet sitting friends over for dinner. One of the guests just had a book published. The book is: Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened. Check out hsi book on Amazon and check out his Website to see the press he's been getting lately. And of course if you find it interesting, you should buy it.





Here we are before the dinner party.

And here is the dinner party.

Last night the boyfriend and I went to Wolf Trap for our sixth concert this summer. We went to see the Gipsy Kings. It was very hot and humid, and the it was probably the largest crowd we've ever seen at Wolf Trap, but we had a great time enjoying the music, some delicious food, and some wonderful wine. Last year we went to the Gipsy Kings concert at Wolf Trap and noted it was a very diverse group of people. This year, the group was very white and heterosexual. Not that that's a bad thing, we just noticed it. We still had a great time. We might see one more concert the first week of September. We'll see.

While we were on our vacation last week we decided to do a little sight seeing and visit Dixie Caverns to see the stalactites and the stalagmites. It was very cool and humid down in the caverns. While the natural creations were cool to look at, our tour guide wasn't very exciting. It was fun anyway. Once you've seen one stalactite or stalagmite, you've seen them all. No need to go to Luray Caverns now. Here's the boyfriend down in the caverns. He looks excited, doesn't he?

The boyfriend and I went on a short vacation at the end of last week and over the weekend. We traveled to southern VA to visit wineries. We visited 16 wineries in four days. We traveled 872 miles and I got 44.2 miles per gallon with my hybrid. We had a great time. We stayed in hotels each night. One of the evenings the boyfriend decided I didn't have a picture of his wine face with him in his underwear. So...thus the following picture. Isn't he adorable?

As expected, Apple introduced the revised iMac today. They also released updates to iLife and iWork and dot Mac. I like the new look of the iMac but don't really care for the black ring around the screen. I see it and expect it to be part of the screen real estate.

The iMac I currently have will be a year old in September. There is no reason for me to get a new one and don't worry, I won't be ordering one of these new ones. I do like the upgrade in speed, ram, and storage space but the best upgrade I can see is the keyboard.

The keyboard is laptop like and looks sleek and all but the best part is that they finally included 2 USB 2.0 ports ON the keyboard. I have never been happy with the amount of USB ports on the iMacs. I've always needed 5 and Apple never added more. Now instead of unplugging something in the back, I can just plug my things into the keyboard...like my digital camera, my iPod, or my iRiver plug. No more reaching around the back of the machine.

SO...since I'm not going to get the new iMac I've decided I will get the new $49 keyboard. I ordered it shortly after seeing all the details about it. It should arrive in a few days. It works with the my current iMac so it shouldn't be a problem at all adding it to my system. Maybe next year at this time I'll think about a new iMac.

This is the six year anniversary of the Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." Just think how things might be different if he had acted on the memo. Would we be in Iraq today? Would he be as hated as he is now? If we could only go back in time and change things.

Here's the boyfriend just before putting on his exercise clothes to play tennis. I thought he looked so cute with his hand in his underwear that I just had to take a picture. Nice, huh?